Billy Crystal is attached to star and executive produce new limited series “Before,” where he will play Eli, a child psychiatrist and recent widower who encounters a troubled young boy. Apple TV+ has picked up the show hailing from Paramount Television.
Sarah Thorp (“The Bounty Hunter”) will serve as writer, with Oscar-winning filmmaker Barry Levinson (“Dopesick”) attached to direct. Eric Roth (“Dune”) will executive produce alongside Thorp, Crystal and Levinson. Additional details are still in the works.
Crystal and Levinson previously worked together as executive producers on 2002’s “Analyze That,” which starred the former alongside Robert De Niro. The “When Harry Met Sally” star recently reprised his voice role as Mike Wazowski in Disney+’s “Monsters at Work” and had a guest spot on the popular Netflix comedy “Never Have I Ever.” Levinson last executive produced Showtime’s “City on a Hill,” starring Kevin Bacon, and the Hulu awards contender “Dopesick.”
One of Apple TV+’s last forays into limited series starring A-list talent includes the Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd dark comedy “The Shrink Next Door,” about a therapist who eventually takes over one of his patient’s lives. There’s also “Defending Jacob,” with Chris Evans, and “The Essex Serpent” starring Tom Hiddleston and Claire Danes.
